


No One's Ever Born A Hero, They're Broken Into One

by nogrey



Series: I watch young justice and overthink the concept of child heroes [1]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: And then this happened, and also she had a daughter?, and dr jace was mad about the whole gun thing, and i was reading outsiders comics, and jefferson's daughter anissa was on the incarnation led by dick, basically i rewatched all of yj, enjoy, so i kept thinking about what they think about the child heroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 20:19:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18977644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nogrey/pseuds/nogrey
Summary: Helga couldn't bite her tongue any longer. They were just children- didn't Grayson know that they should be protected, not thrown into the front lines?





	No One's Ever Born A Hero, They're Broken Into One

**Author's Note:**

> This is the result of a Young Justice rewatch and reading the 2003 Outsiders run (which consisted of Nightwing, Arsenal, Thunder, Grace Choi, Indigo, Shift and Jade). It's quite short and I don't really write much of anything anymore, but I got it into my head so I banged something out. Title came from Diamonds by Mat Kerekes.

Helga simmered silently for a few more days, but eventually she reached a point where she just couldn’t prevent herself from voicing her reservations. Brion and Violet were her kids; seeing the livid bruises set deep into their skin, watching their faces twist in pain as they jostled torn muscles, witnessing the brutal attacks that they fended off, was too much. They were still far too young and fragile to need such ruthless training. 

“Grayson,” She said one day when the outsiders had once again gathered at Conner and Megan’s house. The young man blinked at her, perplexed, but complied in following her outside, where it was quiet. She didn’t miss the sudden tenseness in his shoulders, nor the way his eyes narrowed slightly, searching her face for answers before she even expressed her thoughts. 

He was still so young himself, she marvelled. She’d seen him in civilian clothes before, but today in particular it seemed apparent that there were only a few years between him and Brion. Shed of the Nightwing costume, a weight seemed to lift from his shoulders. Still, he was the leader (his appointment didn’t appear to need any discussion, as even the other senior heroes deferred to him unquestioningly), therefore the source of her woes. 

“I do not agree with your treatment of Brion and Violet,” Helga told him blatantly, “I find it unnecessarily violent and intense. They are still only children, yet you seem to be under the impression that they are of equal ability to you.”  
“Is this about the gun?” Grayson’s brow furrowed and his head tilted in confusion. It was almost childish, “I was using rubber bullets and made sure to only hit them in areas that definitely wouldn’t cause excessive damage.”  
Helga couldn’t help but shake her head in disbelief, “Although that was only part of it, that was one of the more concerning methods that I have witnessed. Violet is 15 years old. Is this how you were treated when you were 15?” 

“Helga, he was raised by Batman.”  
The new voice startled her, but Grayson made no motion to suggest his own surprise. Jefferson appeared at her shoulder, a warm hand briefly touching her arm in a display of concern and affection.  
“You said that I’m under the impression that they’re of equal ability to me,” Grayson’s voice was sharp, usually kind eyes steeling into something harsher, “You’re wrong. As meta-humans, they have abilities that no amount of training could ever provide me. But if they want to utilise their abilities, they have to train. If they want to control their abilities, they have to train. If they want to not die in the field, they have to train.” 

“We understand that, Dick,” A warmth bloomed in Helga’s chest as she realised that Jefferson was siding with her, presenting a united front, “But Doctor Jace has a point. I thought we agreed on the less strict method of training?”  
Grayson looked frustrated now. His hand carded through his hair in irritation, “This is the less strict method. But they need to have certain skills. We are not having any more dead kids.” 

The sentence struck her. Helga’s breath suddenly escaped and it took a moment of concentrated breathing to bring it back. Violet’s ruined body flashed through her mind, blood soaking into the ground. Brion, eye wide in terror with fists beating desperately against the glass, tar creeping up his torso. The morgue, filled with the corpses of children she’d assisted in experimenting on. 

Jefferson and Grayson were still speaking, Helga realised after a moment. Their voices were rising, evolving into a heated argument. Black sparks flitted across Jefferson’s knuckles. It took another moment before she could really concentrate enough to process their words, the English not making sense at first.  
“-shouldn’t have been Robin so young in the first place!” Jefferson was saying, aggression seeping into his tone, “You think that’s right, dressing up a nine year old in bright colours and sending him out to fight crime?”  
“Nine year old?” Helga echoed, still processing what she was hearing.  
“Yes, a nine year old. That’s how old Dick here was when Batman thought it was a good idea to take him to fight crime in Gotham.” 

Grayson looked furious, Helga noted. His fists were clenched tightly enough that his knuckles had turned white, scars from the repeatedly broken skin still standing out starkly. He turned his body away from them, as though he was scared of what he might do. She tried to picture him as a child, tried to relate the young man before her to the bright Boy Wonder she’d heard so much about. 

“If it wasn’t for Batman, the man who murdered my parents would never have been brought to justice,” His voice was remarkably still. Despite his ability to compartmentalise, pushing aside unnecessary emotions during missions, Grayson was a man who felt strongly. This coldness was new, a side to him that Helga had never seen. 

However, it appeared as though Jefferson had been building up to this for some time. She could understand. Jefferson was a father himself, his two daughters still so young, so it only seemed right that he would feel so strongly about this terrible culture of child heroes.  
“He could have done that without involving you,” his voice had dropped, brimming with an almost paternal sadness, “As your guardian, it was his responsibility to keep you safe. How long had you been Robin before Two-Face beat you almost to death? Less than a year?”  
“You don’t know anything about what happened with Two-Face,” Grayson snarled. He seemed surprised for a moment by his own anger. He breathed deeply, counting quietly down from ten before he spoke again, “Look, Batman only trained me because I was going out anyway, so he made sure that I didn’t get myself killed. He fired me for a while, after the Two-Face thing.” 

“But he took you back,” Helga spoke again, finally finding her own voice. She imagined her own daughter, still as young as she had been when she was taken away, wearing a costume of bright colours and going out into the night to face terrors that she should be hidden far away from.  
“We’re not here to discuss what Batman did and didn’t do years ago,” Grayson was already on the move, retreating back to the other child heroes that had survived long enough to grow up, “Especially not when you are- or were, anyway- Virgil’s mentor, Jefferson. I promised to help Brion find his sister and that’s what I’m going to do. After… we’ll regroup. See if they all still want this life.”

“Is this their future, Jeff?” Helga sighed, sagging into his arms as she watched Nightwing walk away “Is this what I condemned those children to?”  
“What?”  
“I caused this. I brought them into this world of heroes and villains, of violence and anger… of death. Because that’s the only way they ever really leave, isn’t it? Death?” 

His arms tightened around her. She knew that where she was picturing her own daughter, Brion, Tara and Violet, he saw his own girls and Virgil, the boy he had taken on a student himself.  
“I really hope not.”


End file.
